Waltzing Matilda
by minixoxmya
Summary: Sometimes when things turn bad, something amazing waltzes back into your life and changes everything. Its true what they say, every cloud has a silver lining. Written for theme 5 of the ZAAngels write off!


**This is my entry for theme 5 of the ZAAngels write off! Hope you enjoy it!**

**~TG~**

'_This isn't the time to make hard and fast decisions; this is a time to make mistakes. Take the wrong train and get stuck somewhere. Fall in love... a lot. Major in philosophy, because there's no way to make a career out of that. Change your mind, and change it again, because nothing's permanent. So, make as many mistakes as you can. That way, someday, when they ask what we want to be, we won't have to guess... we'll know' ~ _The Twilight Saga: Eclipse

**~TG~**

When you're young you're always told that by following your heart, you're dreams will come true. No matter how crazy your dreams may be, if you work hard enough for them, you will get everything you hoped and wished for.

How wrong those people had been.

For twenty four year old Gabriella Matilda Montez, life couldn't be further from what her dreams had been.

The bitterly cold rain poured down over Arizona as the harsh November winds swept across the desolate landscape. With no friends or family near her apartment in Los Angeles, Gabriella decided to make the 12 hour journey to her home town of Albuquerque in her old, rusty, unreliable car.

She wasn't entirely sure how she had found herself here; six months ago she had been settled into a full time job following her college graduation and was earning enough money to live comfortable in Albuquerque. But something wasn't right, something was lacking in her life and destiny seemed to think she would find that missing piece in the city of angels.

She had quit her job, packed up all of her possessions and moved to Los Angeles to persue her dream of becoming a dancer. She studies at one of Hollywood's top dance academies during the day, and worked as a hostess at an up market gentleman's club by night.

Life was hard, harder than hard, but Gabriella was sure that she could make her dream work. After all, you only live once and you should spend that life doing the things that you love.

Gabriella often used long journeys to reflect on her life, this long seemingly endless journey to Albuquerque was no different. She had studied neurobiology at Yale University, and had returned to Albuquerque after graduation to take up a position as a prestigious research facility. As she settled into her normal job and normal life, something just hadn't seemed right, it was then that she decided to quit her job and move to Los Angeles to persue her dream.

Everybody in her life had told her it was the wrong thing to do, but she ignored them and followed destiny to the west coast. She had to admit that despite doing what she loved every day, she was struggling with the lack of money and lack of support from the people around her.

The money she had received from her parents had stopped, the car she had brought with her from Albuquerque had to be traded in for a rusty car that was older than she was, but considerably cheaper to run.

"Come on little car, just two more hours to go!" Gabriella willed her car to continue on as the engine light flashed aggressively. The rain was pouring down onside and the last thing Gabriella wanted to do was to get out, open the hood and attempt to diagnose the problem among the mass of tubes and wires that might as well have been a complicated text written in a remote foreign language.

Suddenly the engine spluttered and choked loudly, the car coming to a slow halt as the old, tired engine finally gave up.

"Damn it!" Gabriella shouted as she slammed her hands against the steering wheel. The rain was still pouring, she was in the middle of nowhere and she had no cell phone reception to call for help. "What the hell am I supposed to do now?" She racked her brains for ideas, coming up blank every time she attempted to search for a way out of the horrible situation.

Darkness was beginning to take over the skies and the storm didn't appear to be clearing. Gabriella sighed to herself, she was just going to have to sleep in the car and hope that morning brought some dry weather that would allow her to walk to seek help.

Settling herself down on the comfortable backseat, Gabriella quietly thanked her mother for always telling her to keep a blanket in the car. Closing her eyes; she pulled the blanket up above her head, hoping that once sleep overtook her body the night would speed by quickly.

That was until there was a knock on the window above her head.

"AHHH" Gabriella screamed as she shot up from under the blanket, fearful of whoever was knocking on the cold wet glass.

Turning reluctantly towards the window, she spotted the face of a man smiling against the glass. She couldn't believe her eyes when she saw who it was, but she wouldn't let herself believe that it was true.

"What the hell were you thinking; you almost gave me a heart attack!" Gabriella ranted as she opened the door and stepped out into the pouring rain. The man laughed and shook his head, holding out his hand for Gabriella to shake it.

"I saw your car and figured you needed help. It wasn't until I peered in your window that I realized it was you Ella; I can't believe it's been so long since we last saw each other." It was then that Gabriella realized how appreciative she was that he of all people on earth had found her in her time of need.

Frowning slightly as she began to feel the rain soaking into her clothes, Gabriella looked Troy in the face and smiled.

"I don't mean to be rude, but can we continue this somewhere warm and dry?" Troy quickly agreed and lead Gabriella to his warm comfortable car. With the engine on Gabriella's car completely broken, she hadn't been able to get any head since the car had stopped over an hour previously. As she stepped into Troy's car and felt the warmth of the heater against her skin, she felt as though she had stepped into heaven.

"So what's a beautiful girl like you doing out her all alone at night?" Troy asked playfully, he and Gabriella had briefly dated in the twelfth grade, and it appeared he still felt comfortable enough around her to flirt like a crazy man.

Gabriella giggled; the time she had spent with Troy all those years ago had been amazing. In fact she was sure their relationship would have lasted longer had his grandfather not passed away, forcing Troy to move upstate with his parents to complete high school.

She had missed him when he'd gone; they had spent a lot of time together over the six months that they had been dating. It felt almost strange that she was seeing him again in such strange circumstanced.

"Well, I'm on my way to Albuquerque for thanksgiving in my piece of shit car, that broke down and I had no cell phone reception to call for help." Gabriella explained the circumstances that had lead her to be attempting to sleep in her car.

Troy chuckled, in high school it had been him with the unreliable truck that would always break down. It was strange how life had worked out and done a complete three sixty.

"Well you're in luck; I'm on my way to Albuquerque too. Need a ride?" Troy asked hopefully; if he was honest, he was glad that he had run into Gabriella again and hoped that she would agree so that he had the opportunity to get to know her again.

Gabriella smiled, it wasn't exactly a hard decision to make right? Sleeping in the cold car in the rain alone, or travelling the rest of the way to Albuquerque in a warm, comfortable car with the particularly beautiful man.

"I think I'll come with you if that's okay, do you mind helping me with my cases?" Gabriella asked, reluctant to get out into the rain again, but knowing she couldn't leave all of her belongings in the car.

Troy shook his head and took Gabriella's keys from her hand, he liked to think his parents had raised him right and there was no way he was going to allow Gabriella to go out into the pouring rain again.

"Don't worry about it, I'll sort it." He said kindly, dashing out of the car and collecting Gabriella's luggage before carefully loading it into his own car. "Right, do you have everything?" He asked when he got back into the car.

Gabriella thought to herself, she had her purse and her luggage; there was really nothing else left in her car that she could possibly want. She nodded happily, watching as Troy flicked the indicator on the car and began to set off down the highway.

"So Troy, what are you doing with your life now?" Gabriella asked; when they had dated, Troy was all set to become a pro basketball player but she hadn't seen him on the TV so she had assumed he had taken a different path in life.

"I moved to Los Angeles after college and I'm producing for ESPN now." Troy responded, he was sure Gabriella would be surprised by his response, it was an average job and he had worked hard to get to the position he was in.

Gabriella was impressed; she had imagined him staying in sport but she hadn't imagined him working in production. The more she thought about it, the more it made sense, Troy had always been interested in technical theatre so this job seemed like the best of both worlds.

"No kidding! I live in LA too! Small world huh? I wouldn't have thought we would end up living in the same city!" Troy was shocked he hadn't run into Gabriella sooner. Sure, Los Angeles was a huge place but with the circle that they ran in, it couldn't have been that difficult to cross paths at some point.

Gabriella was struggling to think of a way she could explain her life in California. How are you supposed to tell your successful ex-boyfriend that you gave up your comfortable life in Albuquerque, to runaway to California to dance?

"So what do you do with your life now?" Troy asked, wondering what the amazingly smart Gabriella had made of her life. It was the question that Gabriella had been dreading; she couldn't get the words together in her head well enough to prevent her life from sounding like a total waste of potential.

She thought hard for a moment before answering, choosing her words and explanations carefully before opening her mouth and speaking.

"Well; I graduated college and took a job in Albuquerque, hated it, so ran away to Los Angeles to dance full time." Gabriella raised her eyebrows, if that didn't sound lame she wasn't sure what on earth would.

Troy was surprised by Gabriella's response, he was sure she would have been some high flying doctor or lawyer, he had never imagined she would have pursued her love of dancing as a career.

Gabriella had always been a wonderful dancer; Troy knew that, when they were dating he had spent hours watching her in the ballet studio that was just outside their neighborhood. She moved with such beauty and grace that had him mesmerized every time he watched her.

"I bet you're amazing at it Ella, you were always an incredible dancer." Troy commented, seeing a sad smile grace Gabriella's face as the thoughts of what could have been crossed through her mind.

Her dream hadn't turned out the way she had hoped; she had never imagined she would be dancing in tiny outfits for dirty old men, and she had never imagined she would be saving every cent she had just to get by.

"I wish it was that simple. I dance in a gentleman's club…definitely not what I had planned for myself. I had a dance partner for competitions but he recently moved out of state, it's not easy finding another so I had to stop competing. All I have left is my studies." Gabriella was consciously aware that her words made her life sound pathetic, and the last thing she wanted was for Troy to feel sorry for her.

She didn't feel sorry for herself; she felt frustrated and overwhelmed but not sorry. She loved studying and was so determined to make something of her life that there was no way she would ever regret moving to Los Angeles.

"You deserve better than that Beautiful. You deserve to be dancing like a princess for the best ballet companies in the country." Troy knew his comment probably wasn't helpful, he was sure Gabriella would already know those things, but what else could he say?

Gabriella shrugged her shoulders; if she had an option she wouldn't be doing what she was doing. She had bills to pay, loans to maintain and food to put on the table, whether she liked in or not she needed that job.

"What else can I do? I've got barely enough money to feed myself and not get kicked out onto the street." This conversation was starting to radiate pity; Gabriella hated people thinking her life was bad. Nothing about her life was bad; she was doing what she dreamed of doing, so it wasn't in the best circumstances, but not many people could say they were making money from something they truly loved.

Troy had no idea what to say next; she could sense Gabriella was uncomfortable but what could he say? He knew Gabriella hated talking about herself, he remembered her well enough to know that when conversations centered on her she would do everything and anything to change the subject.

Troy glanced over at her subtly; he could tell that's he was tired, sleep was heavy in her features and he knew that she was fighting the desire to let sleep overcome her.

"Why don't you take a nap?" He suggested, hoping that she would accept and wake up feeling more rested and relaxed. They still had an hour and a half left of the journey however, with the rain pouring down and the darkness enveloping the atmosphere, Troy was driving a lot slower than he normally would.

What was a journey they would normally take an hour and a half, was quickly becoming one that could take over two hours.

"No way! We haven't talked about you yet! I know what you do, but there's so much more I want to know! It's been years since we've seen each other Troy! Where do you live? Are you married?" Troy smiled as he watched Gabriella become more alive than she had done previously, with the topic of conversation now firmly on him, there was no denying that she was more comfortable.

If Troy was honest with himself, he too wasn't entirely happy with the life he had in Los Angeles. Growing up; the world had portrayed it as the city where dreams came true, but in reality that was far from the truth.

While he earned very good money in his job and had a stunning home in Studio City, his money had brought him happiness. He was lonely; his only friends were those he worked with and his love life was anything less than active.

"Definitely not married and I don't have a girlfriend either if that's what you were wondering. The girls in LA, they're not the same as the girls back home, most of them are out for the money I earn." Troy replied honestly; this wasn't news to Gabriella, she had been on enough dates in her time in California to know it wasn't just Troy that had been played by girls in the city.

"I've heard that story before…it's a shame, it gives us girls a bad name! I've been so unsuccessful in dating since I moved out there. Even in college, when I was a total geek, I had more dates that I've had since I moved." Troy chuckled, Gabriella had always seen herself as the freaky math girl, it wasn't until they started dating that Troy had made Gabriella realize she was beautiful.

The relationship that they had had together had been serious, they had shared firsts together that would cement any teenage relationship. When Troy had moved up state, they had tried their hardest to make it work despite of the distance, but the complicated routine required to see each other even for a few short hours had pushed them apart.

Both Troy and Gabriella would freely admit that they had struggled with the break up. They had both imagined that they would be together forever, despite only dating for such a short time. After leaving for college, neither thought they would ever see the other again, but now sitting in the car together it felt surreal that they were so close once again.

Gabriella had imagined what this moment might have been like, but she never imagined it would happen. She had feared it would be awkward and uncomfortable, but what she was experiencing was something completely different. She felt as though they had never been apart, that the time that had separated them had been mere days rather than years. The conversation was easy, they were sharing shy smiles and Troy's hand was gently stroking her fabric clad leg in comforting circular motions as they drove down the seemingly never ending highway.

What Troy was experiencing was exactly the same, the feelings that he had for Gabriella had evidently not cleared themselves from his system. Her smile still sent tingles down his spine; her beautiful eyes still made him want to stare at them all day long…distance and time had done nothing to suppress the feelings he had felt for her.

"I've miss you Ella," Troy spoke quietly, his words left his mouth without the permission of her brain, had definitely hadn't intended to spill his feelings like that. Gabriella smiled sweetly; she had missed him too, more than she had missed anyone from her high school years.

It felt strange that one relatively short road trip had brought them back together, into a place where they each felt as comfortable with each other as they had been when they were dating. There was just one fear that plagued Troy's mind; he knew Gabriella had said dating in LA had been difficult, but she hadn't said whether or not she had a boyfriend…it was a question he had to ask.

"Do you have a boyfriend?" Troy asked, deciding it was just best to come right out with the question, rather than skirting around it in an anything less than delicate fashion.

Gabriella smiled to herself again, she could see her was nervous of the answer and she knew that the answer she gave would dictate their future.

"No Troy, I don't." She replied, watching as a huge smile grew on Troy's face and relaxing as he squeezed her knee comfortingly.

Troy freely admitted to himself that he would have been jealous if Gabriella had said she had a boyfriend. The idea of guys touching her the way he had back in high school, made him feel uncomfortably jealous. The idea that other guys made love to her the way that he had wasn't something he had wanted to comprehend.

As the huge 'Welcome to New Mexico' sign flashed past the car, Gabriella began to feel a sense of sadness washing over her. It wouldn't be long before they were back in Albuquerque, their road trip over and the possibility of life going back to exactly how it had been just days previously.

The idea of never seeing Troy again made her feel sick, she had been through that once in her life and she wasn't about to do it again…this time she had convinced herself she was not going to let him get away.

As they sped towards Albuquerque, her sadness and anxieties increased. She had forgotten about her troubles back in California, she had forgotten the fact that she could no longer compete because she didn't have a partner.

"What's got you so quiet Beautiful?" Troy asked comfortingly, using a pet name he had used so often when they were together. Gabriella looked over at Troy sadly and sighed, how could she tell Troy she had fallen for him again? She had absolutely no way of judging whether or not he felt the same.

"What's going to happen when we go back to California?" She asked timidly, hoping the answer would be something she wanted to hear, and not an answer that would make her wish she'd never asked.

Troy squeezed her knee again, taking her hand with his free one and kissing it gently. He needed her to know he was there for her, it didn't matter that they had only just reconnected, the connection they had shared in high school was so strong that the distance and the time apart was irrelevant.

"You're going to move out of your tiny apartment and into one of my spare rooms…I'm hoping eventually into my room, you're going to teach me to dance so that you can compete again and I'm going to tell you how beautiful you are everyday." Troy's words were simple but the effect they had on Gabriella was incredible, tears began to well in her eyes and her breath caught in her throat. She had dreamed of hearing those words for so many years, and now they had finally come she couldn't quite believe that they were real.

She couldn't find the words to speak, how could you possibly come back from such beautifully touching words.

"That sounds wonderful," Gabriella replied as the car came to a stop, she looked outside the window and realized that they were parked outside her mother's house. She didn't want the journey to be over, she wanted to stay with Troy, be in his arms and never let go.

She looked over at him with tears running down her cheeks, the last thing she wanted to do was get out of the car and leave him behind.

Troy undid her seatbelt and pulled her into his lap, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her head against his warm neck. The feeling of having her close again was one he couldn't describe; it was in that moment that he realized there was nowhere else in the world that he wanted to be more than sitting there with her in his arms.

"Look at me baby," Troy requested as he pulled Gabriella's chin up to meet her eyes with his. Gently, he wiped the stray tears from her cheek, kissing their tracks before brushing the end of his nose against hers. "Everything's going to be alright. I promise; from now on it's just you and me, no one else matters." Gabriella could feel the breath of his soft words against her lips, they were so close and the idea of leaving was not something she wanted to entertain.

Troy pressed his lips gently against hers, kissing her had always been amazing but there was something about the slow passionate kiss they were sharing that pushed them to a whole new level of connection.

As they pulled away Gabriella lent her forehead against Troy's, desperately trying to maintain some form of connection before their inevitable departing. Gabriella knew she was being dramatic, Troy had told her already that she would see him tomorrow, but she knew tomorrow wouldn't come quickly enough.

With one final delicately passionate kiss, Troy opened his door and pulled Gabriella out of the car with him.

"I'll see you tomorrow beautiful," he spoke, wrapping his arms around her and pressing her head against his chest protectively, as far as he was concerned she was his girlfriend and he was going to do everything in his power to make sure she was happy and safe.

"You promise?" Gabriella asked, leaning his chin against his chest and looking up into his ocean blue eyes.

Troy smiled down and kissed her again, unable to resist the temptation.

"I promise."

**Wow so there you have it! I hope you enjoy it!**


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